As data continues to expand at an exponential rate, organizations need scalability, intelligence and cloud integration to keep up. How much data are we talking? According to a 2018 IDC report, we’re looking at about 33 zettabytes of data. By 2025, that number is expected to reach 175 zettabytes.1

As organizations struggle to keep up with the ongoing proliferation of data, we are seeing an exciting shift in the industry—one that favors an all-flash storage array over the more traditional hard-disc storage. While hard-disc technology has been around for over 60 years, flash is becoming truly disruptive.


All-flash storage vs. Spinning disk storage

All-flash storage, also known as solid-state disk (SSD), is non-spinning data storage that stores the data on interconnected flash-memory disk. A hard disk drive (HDD) utilizes a spinning disk that takes a magnetic imprint of the data saved on a metal platter. Because HDDs are stored on a rotating surface, they are slower to boot, slower to use and more susceptible to physical damage.

While both hard-disc and flash technology are designed to boot your system and store your applications and personal files, SSD offers a unique feature set that provides the foundation for enabling the next technology wave. 

Benefits of all-flash storage:

Better performance: With a one-tier architecture that’s run on the back end by various algorithms, all-flash storage supports faster outputs, lower latency and more reliable performance. In fact, modern storage solutions, such as all-flash, can deliver IT services up to 65% faster and accelerate analytics performance up to 78% to support critical workloads like AI.2

Resource allocation: By reducing storage requirements with technology that’s run behind the scenes, all-flash storage requires less system maintenance while offering more reliable performance, so IT teams can spend less time worrying about what’s going on in the data center and more time focusing on strategic business initiatives. This also means you can scale back your IT department, repurpose your team and cross-train your staff on new technologies so that you can ultimately do more with less.

Cost and ROI: The IT department is not a profit center for the business; it is a cost center. Keeping those costs down is paramount—particularly today with the economic burden that has afflicted the world in response to the global pandemic. In a past life, HDDs offered a more cost-friendly approach to storage than all-flash. But in recent years, new developments in technology have made all-flash storage a more attainable option, as the technology itself has matured and prices have gone down. The speed, agility, responsiveness and reliability of all-flash offer significant ROI benefits, not to mention the reduced costs associated with heat, maintenance, staffing resources and replacement parts.

Real-time analytics: All-flash offers an efficient mechanism to simplify the configuration, usage and management of data across multiple workloads. With the ability to process data in real-time, all-flash gives you quicker access to actionable insights that drive value for your customers and support business success.

As the industry gradually migrates from the spinning disc to flash technology, IIS is helping customers realize these benefits to modernize their data centers. With PowerStore by Dell Technologies, customers can take a revolutionary approach to their storage strategy with more automation, simplicity, intelligence and agility. Contact IIS today to learn more.

Jay Singh

Written by Jay Singh